HDP Co-Leader Condemns Turkish Government's Response to Ankara Bombings
One of the co-leaders of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) party on October 10 strongly criticized the response of Turkey’s ruling AKP and in particular Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to the bombings in Ankara earlier that day that left over 100 people dead and several hundred wounded. Selahattin Demirtas accused Davutoglu of having told lies in his response to the blasts, and laid the blame for the attack at the door of the AKP.
Transcript:
We, as the rally organizers, have met tonight. The meeting is still ongoing.
We’ll have some preparations to transport the deceased from Ankara. and then we will do follow-up with the families of the wounded.
We will stand up to the mentality that cause this massacre and do our best to prevent fear and panic in our country.
We will bid our farewell to the deceased from Ankara, all together and united, and we will embrace them at their destination united as well. We will give their custody to the soil and God.
But we, the left behind, will keep our head up everywhere else.
If they [the government] think they can make us give in, they were wrong in [the] past. We will show they are wrong now.
Let me say this: the ‘intern’ prime minister made some statements tonight.
His statements were filled with lies and disinformation, in which he did not even believe.
Let me first say this: I, as Selahattin Demirtas, did not threaten anyone. I wouldn’t dare.
I just talked as someone who lost almost 150 friends within recent months in attacks like this. I will keep talking.
You haven’t made one arrest in relation to any attacks. Neither Suruc, nor Diyarbakir bombing. You won’t arrest the perpetrator of [the] Ankara bombing either.
As prime minister, without shame, you said you arrested the perpetrator of the Suruc bombing. You stated this an hour ago. You said: “We have arrested Abdurrahman Acikgoz and gave him to the hands of our judiciary system.”
In fact, Abdurrahman Acikgoz, the suicide bomber, blew up into pieces.
Whom did you arrest? To which judicial system did you transfer him?
Is it possible that any good can come from a person who lies like this when addressing the nation?
Has there been even one massacre that you found the criminals who perpetrated them?
Did you find who did the Roboski massacre? Did you find who murdered kids in the Gezi protests? Did you find who bombed our Diyarbakir rally? Is Suruc massacre resolved?
This massacre will not be brought to justice either. Because there are no dark hands behind it.
they are conveying this message: “We can kill you and blow you up into pieces in broad daylight in the middle of Ankara.”
This is not just an attack on us.
They want to give this message: “We can kill anyone who stands up against us (AKP) and cover it.”
Let’s not lie to ourselves.
I am not making these statements because of political gain, or to throw dirt at someone – especially for votes.
To hell with your ballot box, your seats at parliament, and your palace.
But know this. We would not exchange a finger nail of our people for the trillions you have stolen.
They came to a point implying the HDP has bombed its own rallies and killed people to gain sympathy and votes.
The Prime Minister speaks for half an hour, he spends 20 minutes insulting us. The Prime Minister, talking about the rally where 100 of my friends were killed, devotes more than half of his speech to threatening me.
Have you heard a single sentence of condemnation on ISIS? No. Still he threatens us.
Who are you? Who do you think you are? It is rightful to say, “you are not our Prime Minister/ We will not allow you to become our hunter and killer every day either.” , you’re not right.
But this will give us a moment and the moment, day by day we will not allow our participation in it. We will not let you threaten us, or make us submit to you.
What is happening is not a child’s game. We are dying every day. We are the ones who die.
We are soldiers, we’re the police. We are Kurds. We are Turks. We, the children of this poor nation, are the one who die. You do not die.
We know where are your sons are and what they do. We are dying.
Therefore, we do not need to give an account – you do. You are governing this country. You are responsible for every death.
And, you will give an account. We will continue our struggle until we put you under the spotlight of the independent courts.
We will not let you commit heinous acts and massacres so freely every day.
If you think you can scare us by finger-wagging in front of cameras, you are in deep denial.
We have no fear of anyone but God.
We have only one life and we would sacrifice it a thousand times for our people. We have nothing to fear. We do not have anything to hide either.
That’s why, fellow friends, everyone needs to consider what’s going on in their hearts and consciences.
It is Ankara, the capital of Turkey. Even if a bird flies in air, the state knows about it. “A bird!”
This is [the] intelligence agency’s stronghold. This is a rally of 100,000 people. Yet, there is not a single security measure.
Not in alleyways, not in major streets. There is not even one security measure.
Let’s take a look at their rallies. Security measures start taking place from ten streets away.
Today, [it was] as if they purposely let two suicide bombers the crowd who wanted peace. No checking, no security. There was nothing.
Not enough. The suicide bomber exploded himself. There were wounded people on [the] ground. Five hundred people almost. They are not in a position to breathe. The police was given orders to throw gas bombs.
The wounded are close to death. They had to fight against tear gas too. Those who carried the wounded struggled with tear gas. They fought against the pressurized water thrown from police tactical units.
One hundred dead, five hundred wounded on [the] ground and people had to struggle with tear gas and water. Is this your understanding of justice?
Instead of giving an account of what happened, [Davutoglu] appears on TV, starts blaming HDP and Demirtas, avoids their responsibility as government, distorts reality and blames others. What kind of arrogance and irresponsibility is this?
A journalist asked the interior minister whether he will resign, and the [minister] grins. His answer is mixed with a grin.
100 people lie in the morgue. The appointed minister, so-called justice minister, responds with a grin on his face.
We are not obligated to them. As [a] country, we don’t have to suffer by their actions.
There is still an attitude that excludes us. There is still an attitude as if we are responsible for all these deaths.
If we were to govern the country, we would give an account.
If I were the Prime Minister, I would go on stage, apologize a thousand times and then resign.
Some honorable people would even commit suicide.
But these people don’t know what shame means.
There is not even one dignified honorable so we can call out for a resignation.
And we are governed by such people. We are governed by such people with knowing where, how we would die and by whom.
They call this ‘advanced democracy.’
I appeal especially to Mr. Davutoglu: I forbid you from blaming and insulting us for what happened today, when our people are in the morgues, when their flesh has not been picked up off the ground.
Behave yourself. you are not considered prime minister.
You have confiscated by force the government of the country. You staged a coup.
You have no right to wag your finger at us, or threaten us.
If Turkey is disturbed by our cries of democracy and peace, sorry, we do rallies so we can live together, peacefully.
You are really responsible and the real provocateurs. Every speech you make stinks of provocation.
Both president and prime minister: every speech you make causes out people to hate one another.
Those who vote for you are “citizens.” Those who don’t – us – we are “subjects” and “enemies.”
Because we didn’t vote for you, it is alright to kill us. This is what you say every day.
You are the ones who talk to the cameras every day and divide us, and [are] still dividing us.
Shame on you. Leave this country. Get off!
We will save our country from you. With God’s will, those days are close.
We will save the oppressed people from you.
These days will come and we will see it together.
Thank you.
One of the co-leaders of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) party on October 10 strongly criticized the response of Turkey’s ruling AKP and in particular Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to the bombings in Ankara earlier that day that left over 100 people dead and several hundred wounded. Selahattin Demirtas accused Davutoglu of having told lies in his response to the blasts, and laid the blame for the attack at the door of the AKP.
The following is a rough transcript of his remarks intended for guidance only.
Transcript:
We, as the rally organizers, have met tonight. The meeting is still ongoing.
We’ll have some preparations to transport the deceased from Ankara. and then we will do follow-up with the families of the wounded.
We will stand up to the mentality that cause this massacre and do our best to prevent fear and panic in our country.
We will bid our farewell to the deceased from Ankara, all together and united, and we will embrace them at their destination united as well. We will give their custody to the soil and God.
But we, the left behind, will keep our head up everywhere else.
If they [the government] think they can make us give in, they were wrong in [the] past. We will show they are wrong now.
Let me say this: the ‘intern’ prime minister made some statements tonight.
His statements were filled with lies and disinformation, in which he did not even believe.
Let me first say this: I, as Selahattin Demirtas, did not threaten anyone. I wouldn’t dare.
I just talked as someone who lost almost 150 friends within recent months in attacks like this. I will keep talking.
You haven’t made one arrest in relation to any attacks. Neither Suruc, nor Diyarbakir bombing. You won’t arrest the perpetrator of [the] Ankara bombing either.
As prime minister, without shame, you said you arrested the perpetrator of the Suruc bombing. You stated this an hour ago. You said: “We have arrested Abdurrahman Acikgoz and gave him to the hands of our judiciary system.”
In fact, Abdurrahman Acikgoz, the suicide bomber, blew up into pieces.
Whom did you arrest? To which judicial system did you transfer him?
Is it possible that any good can come from a person who lies like this when addressing the nation?
Has there been even one massacre that you found the criminals who perpetrated them?
Did you find who did the Roboski massacre? Did you find who murdered kids in the Gezi protests? Did you find who bombed our Diyarbakir rally? Is Suruc massacre resolved?
This massacre will not be brought to justice either. Because there are no dark hands behind it.
they are conveying this message: “We can kill you and blow you up into pieces in broad daylight in the middle of Ankara.”
This is not just an attack on us.
They want to give this message: “We can kill anyone who stands up against us (AKP) and cover it.”
Let’s not lie to ourselves.
I am not making these statements because of political gain, or to throw dirt at someone – especially for votes.
To hell with your ballot box, your seats at parliament, and your palace.
But know this. We would not exchange a finger nail of our people for the trillions you have stolen.
_______
They came to a point implying the HDP has bombed its own rallies and killed people to gain sympathy and votes.
The Prime Minister speaks for half an hour, he spends 20 minutes insulting us. The Prime Minister, talking about the rally where 100 of my friends were killed, devotes more than half of his speech to threatening me.
Have you heard a single sentence of condemnation on ISIS? No. Still he threatens us.
Who are you? Who do you think you are? It is rightful to say, “you are not our Prime Minister/ We will not allow you to become our hunter and killer every day either.” , you’re not right.
But this will give us a moment and the moment, day by day we will not allow our participation in it. We will not let you threaten us, or make us submit to you.
What is happening is not a child’s game. We are dying every day. We are the ones who die.
We are soldiers, we’re the police. We are Kurds. We are Turks. We, the children of this poor nation, are the one who die. You do not die.
We know where are your sons are and what they do. We are dying.
Therefore, we do not need to give an account – you do. You are governing this country. You are responsible for every death.
And, you will give an account. We will continue our struggle until we put you under the spotlight of the independent courts.
We will not let you commit heinous acts and massacres so freely every day.
If you think you can scare us by finger-wagging in front of cameras, you are in deep denial.
We have no fear of anyone but God.
We have only one life and we would sacrifice it a thousand times for our people. We have nothing to fear. We do not have anything to hide either.
_____
It is Ankara, the capital of Turkey. Even if a bird flies in air, the state knows about it. “A bird!”
This is [the] intelligence agency’s stronghold. This is a rally of 100,000 people. Yet, there is not a single security measure.
Not in alleyways, not in major streets. There is not even one security measure.
Let’s take a look at their rallies. Security measures start taking place from ten streets away.
Today, [it was] as if they purposely let two suicide bombers the crowd who wanted peace. No checking, no security. There was nothing.
Not enough. The suicide bomber exploded himself. There were wounded people on [the] ground. Five hundred people almost. They are not in a position to breathe. The police was given orders to throw gas bombs.
The wounded are close to death. They had to fight against tear gas too. Those who carried the wounded struggled with tear gas. They fought against the pressurized water thrown from police tactical units.
One hundred dead, five hundred wounded on [the] ground and people had to struggle with tear gas and water. Is this your understanding of justice?
Instead of giving an account of what happened, [Davutoglu] appears on TV, starts blaming HDP and Demirtas, avoids their responsibility as government, distorts reality and blames others. What kind of arrogance and irresponsibility is this?
A journalist asked the interior minister whether he will resign, and the [minister] grins. His answer is mixed with a grin.
____
100 people lie in the morgue. The appointed minister, so-called justice minister, responds with a grin on his face.
We are not obligated to them. As [a] country, we don’t have to suffer by their actions.
There is still an attitude that excludes us. There is still an attitude as if we are responsible for all these deaths.
If we were to govern the country, we would give an account.
If I were the Prime Minister, I would go on stage, apologize a thousand times and then resign.
Some honorable people would even commit suicide.
But these people don’t know what shame means.
There is not even one dignified honorable so we can call out for a resignation.
And we are governed by such people. We are governed by such people with knowing where, how we would die and by whom.
They call this ‘advanced democracy.’
I appeal especially to Mr. Davutoglu: I forbid you from blaming and insulting us for what happened today, when our people are in the morgues, when their flesh has not been picked up off the ground.
Behave yourself. you are not considered prime minister.
You have confiscated by force the government of the country. You staged a coup.
You have no right to wag your finger at us, or threaten us.
If Turkey is disturbed by our cries of democracy and peace, sorry, we do rallies so we can live together, peacefully.
You are really responsible and the real provocateurs. Every speech you make stinks of provocation.
Both president and prime minister: every speech you make causes out people to hate one another.
Those who vote for you are “citizens.” Those who don’t – us – we are “subjects” and “enemies.”
Because we didn’t vote for you, it is alright to kill us. This is what you say every day.
You are the ones who talk to the cameras every day and divide us, and [are] still dividing us.
Shame on you. Leave this country. Get off!
We will save our country from you. With God’s will, those days are close.
We will save the oppressed people from you.
These days will come and we will see it together.
Thank you.
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